Still worried about getting a vaccine for COVID-19? Here's how to understand the rare-but-real risks
CBC
Whether you're scrolling through your Facebook feed, checking texts from friends and family, or chatting with fellow parents from your kid's hockey team, you're bound to encounter questions about whether or not it's safe to get vaccinated.
Billions of people around the world have signed on to get their shots to ward off COVID-19. But millions of others are waiting — and wondering.
Are these vaccines safe? Do they cause major side effects? What are the long-term health impacts? Can they kill you?
The questions, to some degree, make sense. No drug is risk-free. And there are some known, headline-making adverse reactions following COVID-19 vaccines, including rare cases where people have died.
There's also plenty of misinformation circulating around, from debunked studies on vaccination risks to anecdotal, unproven accounts of negative outcomes after a shot.
Yet there's also overwhelming evidence that these vaccines are saving countless lives while carrying far, far lower risks than the disease they're designed to prevent — one that has so far killed close to five million people around the world.
So why does it sometimes feel like concerns about vaccines are taking up rent-free space in so many people's brains?
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